EXCLUSIVE: When John Stamos warns of a chocolaty apocalypse, pay attention.
He does just than in a sneak listen of what could be a pretty delicious musical parody inspired by that hilariously misguided (and unlicensed) Willy Wonka experience event in Glasgow a few months back.
The Stamos track is one of three demos released to Deadline today by the producers of Willy’s Candy Spectacular: A Musical Parody. With a line-up of songwriters including Riki Lindhome, Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner, Tova Litvin and Doug Rockwell, and Daniel Mertzlufft, and performances by TikTok’s The Sharpe Family and the real fest’s actual sad, gone-viral Oompa Loompa actress Kirsty Paterson, the demos will debut today on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and at willyscandyspectacular.com.
Sample lyric, as delivered by Stamos with classic rock god moves: “It was the start of the end of the world/It’s significance was easy to miss/A scheme gone bad turned viral fad/brought us to the apocalypse/Some thought it’d be Trump or Putin/setting the world ablaze/Some thought it’d be masks or Covid vaccinations/that led to the ends of days/ But no! It was Willy’s Candy Spectacular!”
The parody’s lead producer Richard Kraft of Kraft-Engel Productions had previously directed Stamos in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory in Concert at the Hollywood Bowl that also featured Finn Wolfhard as Charlie and “Weird Al” Yankovic as the Oompa Loompas.
Said Kraft, “The process of creating a brand-new musical, which usually spans years, is being condensed into just a couple of months, with the team sharing their progress through social media.”
The first three demo tracks released today are:
- “Willy’s Candy Spectacular” – Stamos performs a post-apocalyptic opening number that traces the downfall of civilization back to the disastrous event in Glasgow. This track is the brainchild of Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner, known for their work on Broadway’s First Date and ABC’s Once Upon a Time. Said the songwriters, “We love musicals with epic opening numbers. And we thought — what could be more epic than John Stamos singing about the end of humanity and linking our species’ demise to an underwhelming immersive experience in Scotland?”
- “Where Dreams Go To Fly” – An uplifting number written by Emmy-winners Doug Rockwell and Tova Litvin (High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, Julie & The Phantoms) captures “the unbridled optimism of the impresario behind Willy’s Candy Spectacular.” “There’s such a fine line between soaring optimism and crushing defeat,” they said. “In our song, we’ve tried to capture the range of emotions one goes through when creating art, even when that art is mind-numbingly awful.”
- “Dreamed to Dare” – Written by Daniel Mertzlufft, who launched the viral TikTok musical Ratatouille the Musical, features TikTok singers The Sharpe Family and the actual sad Oompa Loompa actress Kirsty Paterson from the viral Wonka Experience in Glasgow as “attendees preparing to enter the world of dreams (or nightmares).” Said Mertzlufft, “Not many shows have such high stakes and absurd characters that we deserve a bombastic anticipatory ensemble number – but with a plot like this I couldn’t resist!”
Demos of additional songs are expected to be released every Sunday in the coming weeks, including a song from Riki Lindhome based on the sad Oompa Loompa Wannabe, culminating in the debut of a staged reading of the musical at the Pleasance King Dome from August 9 to 26 during Edinburgh Fringe Fest 2024.
Willy’s Candy Spectacular: A Musical Parody, producers want to make clear, is a parody production “and not sponsored, endorsed by or affiliated with Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., Illuminati, Willy’s Chocolate Experience, The Ferrero Group, The Roland Dahl Story Company, Netflix, Village Roadshow Pictures, HeyDay Films and Domain Entertainment, or any of their subsidiaries or affiliated companies and/or third party licensors.”
Listen to the three numbers below:
Willys Candy Spectacular: ( feat John Stamos)
Dreamed to Dare: (Feat Sharpe Family Singers and Sad Oompa Loompa Kirsty Paterson)
Where Dreams Go To Fly: featuring Doug Rockwell and Tova Litvin)
